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The Youth Trap
(Gold Key TOS) | number = 8 | date = 2267 | stardate = 3109.5 | editor = | artist = Alberto Giolitti | penciller = | inker = | writer = Dick Wood | printed = | omnibus = The Enterprise Logs, Volume 1; The Key Collection, Volume 1; Gold Key Archives, Volume 2 | published = | format = | pages = 26 | publisher = Gold Key Comics | ISBN = | altcover = }} :They stand helpless before an alien who dooms them... to infancy! Summary :Captain's log, stardate 24:17.9 - ''Enterprise under full power in Galaxy Zekbran to investigate the sighting of an uncharted planet. All systems operational...'' A mysterious force strikes one of the Enterprise s engines, damaging it and burning out the filament parts required to repair it. The crew has no choice but to beam a landing party to the planet's surface in search of zutotanium to make more. Burns and discover some, but are struck by an energy beam that turns them into children. Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam down to investigate and find two men firing beams at them, one of which strikes McCoy and turns him into a teenager. The de-aged crewmembers are beamed back up while Kirk and Spock make their way towards their attackers; Kirk is struck as well, but is not de-aged. One of the men begins fighting the other and forces him off a cliff. Kirk and Spock rescue the fallen man, who reveals himself to be Laiko, a scientist from Galaxy Trann. He was a member of a starship crew which crashlanded on the planet; an attempt to restore power to the engines resulted in the creation of a machine which reversed aging. They tested it on the Starfleet officers with the intent to learn how to halt the aging process in themselves so they could live long enough to repair their ship or be rescued. Kooba, the man who fought him, uses the age-ray to seize command of the ship's crew, and has them capture Kirk, Spock and Laiko when they accidentally reveal themselves. Kooba reveals that he intends to use the age-ray to take over his home planet when he returns there after capturing the Enterprise. He has Kirk and Laiko imprisoned while he, Spock and Gorg are beamed up to the ship. Kooba uses the ray on the ship's TV circuits to de-age the crew all at once, but slows down the process so that they will not become babies for a few more hours. He returns to the planet to de-age Kirk, but the captain uses a metal plate to reflect the beam back to Kooba, causing him to de-age instead. With Laiko's help, he returns to the Enterprise, knocks out Gorg and reverses the crew's de-aging. With everyone except Kooba at their proper ages again, Kirk destroys the age-ray. The Enterprise s engines are repaired, but Starfleet Command has trouble believing their report. References Characters :Burns • Gorg • James T. Kirk • Kooba • Laiko • • Leonard McCoy • Montgomery Scott • Spock Starships and vehicles : ( ) Locations :Galaxy Zekbran • unnamed planet Trann Races and cultures :Human • Trann native • Vulcan Other reference :age-ray • Esperanta • zutotanium Appendices Background * This story has been released ten times in English and has been translated 11 times into other languages: Portuguese (3x), French (2x), German (2x), Italian (2x), Dutch and Spanish. Images gold Key 08.jpg|Cover image. jtk GK8.jpg|James T. Kirk. spock GK8.jpg|Spock. Connections Production history ;September 1970 : First published by Gold Key Comics ;1971 : Printed in hardcover in Star Trek Annual 1972 (World Distributors Limited) ;1974 : Printed in b/w in Star Trek Comic Album (1974) (World Distributors Limited) ;August 1976 : Printed in the omnibus The Enterprise Logs, Volume 1 (Golden Press) ;31 December 1977 - 25 March 1978 : Serialized in Mighty TV Comic #1359 - 1371 ;June 2004 : Printed in the omnibus The Key Collection, Volume 1 (Checker Book Publishing Group) ;2004 : The cover, two images and a quote were reprinted on Gold Key Chase Card #8 in the card set Quotable Star Trek (Rittenhouse Archives) ;2008 September : Included on The Complete Comic Book Collection DVD (Graphic Imaging Technologies) ;August 2014 : Remastered in hardcover in the omnibus Gold Key Archives, Volume 2 (IDW) ;February 2017 : Remastered in Star Trek Gold Key 100-page Spectacular (IDW) ;13 April 2017 : Remastered in hardcover in the omnibus Graphic Novel Collection #8 (Eaglemoss) Translations ;June 1972 : Portuguese: b/w in "Armadilha da Juventude" in Jornada Nas Estrelas #7 (1st series) (Ebal) ;December 1972 : Italian: As "La Trappola della Gioventù" in Star Trek Albi Spada #8 (Edizioni Fratelli Spada) ;January 1973 : French: As "La Machine à Rajeunir" in Star Trek #2 (1st series) (Remparts) ;1972 or 1973 : French: In the omnibus Star Trek Album #2 (Remparts) ;4 August 1973 : Spanish: In TV Mundial #254 Viaje a las Estrellas (Editorial Novaro) ;1973 : German: Serialized over four issues as "Planet der Jugend" in Z''ack 1973'' #2 - 5 (Koralle) ;1974 : Dutch: As "De Hindelaag der Kinderen" in b/w in Star Trek #3 (De Vrijbuiter) ;December 1976 : Portuguese: As "Armadilha da Juventude" in Jornada Nas Estrelas #6 (2nd Series) (Abril) ;1976 : German: As "Planet der Jugend" in the 228-page omnibus Zack Parade #17 ;10 May 1978 : Portuguese: In b/w in O Caminho das Estrela #8 (Aguiar) ;2005 : Italian: In the omnibus The Gold Key Collection, Volume 2 (Free Books) External links * * The Youth Trap opening spread as it appeared in serialized form in Mighty TV Comic #1359. category:tOS comics